Software for making music and interfaces to interact with such software has advanced in dramatic ways over the past thirty years. Computers, mobile devices, and other electronic devices continue to gain popularity as means for creating music, recording it, and arranging musical parts into larger projects. However, the selection of hardware options available to musicians as means to control software continues to be significantly limited. Whether in terms of expressive potential, connectivity limitations, or ergonomic forms, the category of hardware controllers demands constant innovation to keep pace with the potential capabilities of new software.
Furthermore, with the advent of non-linear software for electronic performance and sound manipulation, hardware interfaces that are locked into one configuration for triggering events are not tapping the full potential of the software that they control. It is no longer the case that sounds are generated by an instrument or synthesizer and then filtered through external effects; in many current electronic instruments and software programs, sound generation and effects processing are often accomplished in the same device. Virtual controls such as multi-axis grids and sliders require new hardware devices that are not mapped merely according to traditional formats of keys and frets. Next-generation instruments need to be highly adaptable to support these new software capabilities, both in terms of hardware flexibility and software configurability.
Touch-screen computers and associated musical software have greatly expanded the ways that sounds can be created and processed by a user, specifically in the case of non-linear sequencing and multi-axis grids for effects triggering. However, the lack of tactile input in these touch screen computers requires that the musician must always look at the screen to know where to press his or her fingers. This lack of blind tactility is a significant hindrance to a user. Additionally, such screens generally lack force-sensitivity, accomplishing an approximation of force-sensitivity only through accelerometers and gyroscopes rather than directly from user touch points. Developing this third dimension of tactile input is key for advanced musical expression.
Traditional stringed instruments like the guitar, violin, banjo, and bass suffer from some notable limitations, largely because they rely on the vibration of strings and the resonance of those vibrations through the body of the instrument to which they are attached. These strings are prone to breaking, going out of tune, losing tonal quality as they age, and other shortcomings. Traditional stringed instruments also require constant adjustment in order to stay in tune. Additionally, to change to a new tuning requires changing the tension of individual strings, replacing strings (to accommodate the new string tension), or a new “setup” (precise adjustments to the bridge and other components of the instrument). The strings also rely on mechanical systems like tuning pegs and bridges that require constant adjustment and are prone to failure. The resonant bodies of these instruments can fall victim to breaking due to their fragile structure, warping or becoming distorted from environmental factors like humidity. These limitations have been noted elsewhere, but significant opportunities remain to replace such strings with robust electronic alternatives.
Multiple interfaces have been developed to attempt to emulate string-like playability on electronic (especially MIDI) instruments. Some incorporate buttons or other sensors underneath traditional frets or strings on a fingerboard. These suffer from the difficulties of detecting string bends, pitch differences in strings, and uncomfortably require the user to press the string directly down onto the sensor. Others, such as Roland MIDI guitars, use electronic pickups to detect the vibration of traditional strings and then parse those vibrations into individual notes. The continuing difficulty of this solution is that it requires advanced signal processing to extract the intended notes from the large amount of harmonic noise present on a physical string interface. Other instruments have foregone strings altogether, using button triggers at each fret to synthesize the interface of strings. These behave more like fretted keyboards than stringed instruments, lack the ergonomics and linear finger sliding of physical strings, and require the user to learn a new playing technique to adapt to the button feel.
Another difficulty of such button interfaces is in the method of strumming, bowing, or other string-like triggering required to operate them. Some devices are operated through short string interfaces for the triggering hand that are then measured by piezo, string tension or other pickups to determine attack and sustain. This requires two different techniques for playing such an instrument: one for the notes on buttons and the other for strumming/triggering. Other devices use mechanical triggers (e.g., Guitar Hero devices) which flip back and forth as an inverted guitar “pick.” These devices have very limited expressive potential. Still others utilize touch-screens, which may be embedded into the device (e.g., Kitara digital guitars) or exist on a tablet screen which is then incorporated into the instrument (e.g., Behringer iAxe guitars). Touch screens carry the same limitations listed above for tablet computers. They are inherently non-tactile, requiring the user to look at the screen to determine finger placement. Touch screens also lack force and pressure-sensitivity, except through workarounds such as accelerometers, which limits the subtle musicality of triggering notes as would be available on a traditional stringed instrument. There is still a need for a string-like electronic instrument with a natural, expressive, and flexible strumming option in one hardware controller.
While there have been attempts to create more varieties of instrument-like hardware controllers for making electronic music—MIDI guitars, electronic drum kits, and the like—they have suffered from a lack of well-designed ergonomic interfaces that allow for alternative musical techniques. When choosing an electronic instrument, a musician must generally choose between a few of these types, each of which are singular in their playable technique. By being limited to dominant non-electronic instrument forms (e.g., keyboards, drums, guitars), these devices have inherent musical limitations. While these instruments allow for retuning (changing which notes are triggered by which inputs), they still require a traditional playing technique to generate the appropriate signal that is then converted into a note. For example, a user may be able to shift the tuning of a synthetic guitar's strings up or down, but a musician is still expected to play it like a traditional guitar. In other words, if someone buys a MIDI guitar, he or she will emulate traditional guitar-like techniques while playing it. He or she will not be able, for instance, to play the guitar like an upright bass or violin. Electronic instruments are generally intended to be played with a very particular, rather than a flexible and adaptable, technique. There is a need for electronic instruments that can be adapted to different playing techniques.
Many digital instruments employ a key-type interface, where each key represents a single semitone in a musical scale (for example, the standard Western scale consists of 12 notes dividing up a single octave). Standard key interfaces are often capable of detecting velocity or continuous pressure within that note location. Digital instruments capable of string-like playability have mostly employed this same interface format, which is functional for fretted playability (such as a guitar) but not fretless (like the violin family of instruments). Fretless stringed instruments require that the note location be continuous; it is up to the player to determine the position of semitones within octaves, and it is possible to play out of tune or in alternate intonations (such as just intonation, equal temperament, or instrument-specific intonations such as the Pelog for gamelans). In short, the multi-instrument requires a continuous sensing interface that is capable of switching between fretted (key-like) and fretless (untuned) playing styles.
Electronic instrument body styles are also designed for a limited number of ergonomic playing positions and triggering techniques. For a musician who wishes to use multiple techniques such as bowing a violin or cello, fading in notes or pitches as on a pedal steel guitar, or switching between fretted and non-fretted necks during a performance, there are no solutions currently available in a single device. Skill and familiarity that musicians have already cultivated with their instruments of choice are often non-transferable to electronic music making.
Alternatively, electronic instruments have been devised with creative, non-traditional interfaces. These require the musician to learn a new playing technique that is unique to that specific device, and in many cases, therefore, learn a skill that is non-transferable to other devices. Because many musicians have been taught on traditional instruments, this learning curve can be significant. Conversely, for a musician who learns on these non-traditional devices, it is difficult to translate that musical skill onto other instruments, of traditional form or otherwise. A student of the Theremin, for instance, is not likely to be able to play a violin on the first try. In short, while current electronic instruments may or may not be ergonomic, they fail to resemble traditional instrument ergonomics enough to enable translation of skills between them.
Even among traditional instruments, this same proprietary skill isolation holds true. Most instrumentalists are able to learn and play on particular instruments (e.g., violin, snare drum, electronic keyboard) rather than whole categories (e.g., strings, drums, keys) at once. There is a lack of instruments available to enable students to learn multiple techniques in a single interface. These techniques include finger positions for alternate tunings, triggering techniques (such as strumming, plucking, picking, bowing, slapping, tapping, etc.), body-holding positions (on the lap, on the leg, on the chest, on the shoulder, upright, tabletop, etc.), and responsiveness to differences, in the instrument's sensitivity and translation of touch input to sound output (when tapping a string, whether it resounds immediately or gradually fades in requires different skills on the part of the musician) (collectively referred to herein as “tactile user input”). What is needed is an instrument capable of being played in multiple ways. It should share the fundamental basics with multiple instruments having different techniques and playing styles and allow a user to switch both the virtual instrument and the handling style of the physical instrument.
Additionally, traditional and current electronic stringed instruments do not capture sound in ways that meet the artistic goals of many musicians and producers. Music that is performed live must be recorded accurately, processed to produce the desired qualities, and often mixed with other recordings (musical, vocal, or otherwise) to create a finished product. This generally requires multiple stages, many separate pieces of equipment, special facilities like recording booths, and a broad variety of skills. With the widespread adoption of DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) in laptop and desktop computers, musicians and producers now have the opportunity to consolidate much of this production into a single machine. The recent advent of multi-track recording on mobile devices extends this functionality even further. However, the primary distinction between instrument and recorder still exists for the majority of instruments. While it is common for electronic musical keyboards to have recording capabilities built-in, most other electronic instruments must be connected in various ways to other equipment to enable recording. When a producer desires multiple instruments to be used on the same track, he or she must connect and play each instrument separately. What is needed is a single electronic instrument that can enable the musician to perform, record, mix and play back these multiple performances internally.
In order to fill each of these needs described above, an electronic instrument is needed which (1) may interface with multiple types of software, (2) has tactile pseudo-strings, (3) replaces strings with pseudo-strings, but maintains a natural, expressive string-like user interface, (4) shares ergonomics with various stringed instruments, (5) allows for multiple playing techniques and (5) allows a user to switch between instrument configurations, both in playing technique and sound output. Additionally, the instrument may allow a user to perform, record, mix and play back performances.